Acquia introduced the Drupal Business Summit during a four-city road show in 2010. The Summit provides particular value for those considering open-source based solutions, evaluating content management system options, or who are in the process of standardizing part of or all of their web properties to Drupal.

The Atlanta Drupal Business Summit will bring together real-world professionals to learn about Drupal and open source software. We will share actual Atlanta use cases of Drupal implementations, lessons learned, and gain insight into best practices. We are blocking off plenty of time for networking and will have a moderated panel discussion, top-notch speakers, and a reception directly afterwards. Acquia was gracious enough to let us re-purpose their Drupal Gardens based theme and emulate much of the look and feel from their sites last year. In fact, the event would not have been made possible without the generous support of sponsors and volunteers –- by the way, a limited number of sponsorships are still available.

The biggest difference between this Summit and those hosted by Acquia in 2010 is that we are running in conjunction with the Southeast's largest Drupalcamp: Drupalcamp Atlanta 2011 (website launch/registration coming very soon). The camp will be held the next day on Saturday, Oct. 1, also at GTRI.

Acquia deserves a lot of credit for spearheading last year’s Summit events, but there was one major long-term challenge: the Summits simply do not scale well for any one organization to handle. Much like Drupalcons, there is a tedious amount of advanced planning, public relations, and event coordination that needs to take place. This is where the Drupal community can help pitch in. Both Mediacurrent and Acquia would like to see the Atlanta Drupal Business Summit replicated at more regional Drupalcamps and events. We are documenting our processes, to-do lists, budget, etc., and contributing an organizational guide back to the community. The goal is to provide a reusable system for other local camp organizers to use as a model and plan their own Drupal Business Summit. We will also record every session on video and conduct hallway interviews with attendees.

Finally, we need your help! This event is a tremendous opportunity to advance the Drupal movement. Our stats show that many Drupalcamp attendees are referrals. Please help us spread the word by telling your boss, co-workers, interactive agencies, networking contacts and other user groups. Our Twitter name/hashtag will be #DrupalBizAtl, and long-time Atlanta Drupal User Group (ADUG) member Jim Caruso has agreed to help with a press release and marketing campaign. Attendance will be capped, so be sure to sign up as soon as possible. We look forward to seeing you there!